Newsletter

Killing Sin

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When God’s Spirit gives us his presence and his salvation he also calls us to war.  War with sin. War with our sinful nature. War with our flesh. War with ourselves. To grow is grace is, in part, to kill the flesh – the vestiges of our old nature. We are either feeding the flesh and starving the Spirit, or feeding the Spirit and starving the flesh.  

The Puritans called this mortifying the flesh. “Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it while you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you” (John Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation). Most Christians acknowledge this warfare as necessary and we give passing attention to it, but ….  That but is the problem.  We fight our sin like we fight our favorite unhealthy food; occasionally, half-heartedly, and with a secret plan to taste it again.

But this duel to the death with sin in not merely an old Puritan obsession, it is a Biblical command. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17).  We have been set free from the guilt and shame of sin, and we are being delivered from the power and presence of sin. “If you by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body…” Romans 13.  It is “by the Spirit” that we kill sin.  We are not left to our own resources, we have the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20), but we must put the armor on and enter the lists. We are passionately active in this duel with our sin. God works in us and with us, but in sanctification, He will not work without us.

The Hebrew Christians had suffered greatly for their commitment to Jesus as their Messiah.  They “endured a hard struggle” “being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction.” They had “compassion on those in prison” and they “joyfully accepted the plundering of (their) property” Hebrews 10:32-34.  They were in the trenches, standing with Christ and supporting his people.  But they were wavering, and uncertain because following Christ was increasingly difficult.  Yet, even in their sincere difficulty, they are exhorted to fight sin. “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Hebrews 12:4).

It is football season and you can always tell who is winning by glancing at the scoreboard.  So, how are you doing in your battle with sin? Are you on the gridiron with your pads, your fresh bruises, and your blood, sweat, and tears? Or are you in the stands, with a greasy burger and a cold beer watching your team lose? What is the score? Brothers and sisters, to arms! The war is won, but our battle remains. Kill sin, or it will kill you.

An Encouragement for Disciples to Study

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An encouragement for disciples to study? That title is redundant. A ‘mathetes’, the Greek word for a disciple, is a learner. A disciple of Jesus Christ is committed to following him and his teaching. As Christians, we submit to Jesus and the Word that proclaims him. To be a disciple, a ‘mathetes’ is to study, to learn. Jesus in Matthew 11:29 commands us to “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” John 6:45 tells, “It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” To be a disciple is to be a learner, to be a student.

The truth as it is in Jesus has never been more accessible to the church and perhaps never more neglected by the church. Neil Postman writes about the “Low Information – Action Ratio,” or LIAR for short. We are bombarded by so much trivial information that we cannot act on any of it. We are progressively trained not to act on what little we learn.  We can drink from the firehose of knowledge and get very wet but stay very thirsty. The information is out there and the truth of Jesus is available.  But our problem, I think, is the opposite. We are not drinking from a firehose, although it is accessible, we are merely dipping our little toe into the ocean of knowledge.

Do you, as a student, a disciple, have a plan or a purpose in your study of God, his Son, and his Word?  Much of our learning program as Christians, if we have one at all, is rather spontaneous, haphazard, and random. We listen to our pastor once a week, and Christian radio during the week; that is nourishment enough, we think. What is your plan to grow as a disciple, a learner of Jesus?

In seminary, pastors were encouraged to study God’s Word in a devotional manner.  We must feed our own souls first before we could prepare a meal for others.  One student read through bible commentaries for his devotions.  Another pursued Systematic Theologies for fun.  Others devoured technical treatises for their growth in grace.  Now, we are not all pastors or teachers, and I am not encouraging my brothers and sisters to study in that manner.  But there are hundreds of good, godly, and edifying Christian books designed to assist you as a disciple of Christ. Do you read them? any of them? Are you consistently and fruitfully studying the Word of God? Not merely reading it, but studying it, and growing the fruit of the Spirit because of it?

As a young Christian when I read the Bible or other Christian books I would circle the words and concepts that I did not understand.  And then, I would study until I figured it out.  So my encouragement to you, as a fellow disciple of Jesus Christ, is simply this – study to know God better. Find the time. Have a plan. Read the Bible. Begin to chase down the knowledge of God. For some, “have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:19-21).

Don’t know where to begin to be a disciple? Pray. Read the Bible. Start with the Gospel of John.  Need more? Ask your pastor for a book. It will make his day!

Knowing God Encourages Better Friendships

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If God can make friends of us, we can make friends of anyone! We are better friends and we seek deeper friendships because we have a friendship with God. Exodus 33:11, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” 2 Chronicles 20:7, “Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?” The Covenant of Grace has been called the Covenant of Friendship by some.  God, through the Gospel, has made us his friends.

God has also made us friendly. He has given us the tools to make friends with anyone – even the worst.  Jesus has even lead by example by befriending us. God has befriended us in this fallen world and has called us to make friends with others.

How does the gospel of grace make us better friends?

We know ourselves. We freely acknowledge our weaknesses and needs. We are finally honest with ourselves. The problem isn’t out there somewhere, but in here somewhere. And the gospel solves the problem. Through God’s grace, we begin accurately to understand our broken nature. We don’t hide the truth about ourselves from ourselves or others anymore. Knowing truth allows us to be honest, to be correctable, to drop our selfish emotional walls and phony self-protection. We can be open and brutally forthright about who we really are because we are forgiven and accepted in Christ – and he knew the worst about us. That honest self-scrutiny helps us to form better friendships in a fallen world.

We know the truth of the human condition. Fallen human nature does not surprise us because we acknowledge our own fallenness and sin.  We know that everyone struggles to live uprightly, to do the right thing, and to fight against temptation. Children of Adam know God but they selfishly suppress that knowledge and then live in fear that their sins will find them out. Their conscience speaks, somewhat accurately, and they can’t live up to its dictates let alone fulfill the law of God. Therefore, as redeemed sinners ourselves, we expect to find dirt, struggle, pain, and remorse in everyone that we meet. We can meet friends in their brokenness and need and “paraclete” them. (Paraclete is a Greek word that means to be called alongside to help, as the Holy Spirit has done for us).

We know where the medicine is found.  We are very much like hungry beggars showing other hungry beggars where to find bread.  We don’t have it all together either but we know where help resides. We are starting to heal from our brokenness and sin and we can lead others to the hospital of grace.

We don’t need a friend, so we can be a friend. Because we have found a perfect friend in Jesus, we don’t ‘need’ or crave another one.  We can be friends with anyone but we don’t need to be friends with anyone else. We don’t require co-dependents because we depend on Christ, and he is enough. To be a friend means to give yourself away in self-sacrificing love. And Christians have experienced that love in Christ and have an ever-increasing capacity to show that love to others.  We are no longer needy, so we can meet the needs of others around us.

When two growing, maturing Christians begin a friendship they can go really deep.  Mutual, self-giving love is the best soil to grow a deep and satisfying friendship.  “Iron sharpens iron.” “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” “…There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 27:17; 17:17; 18:24).

So, dear Christian friend, you have experienced a perfect friendship, and you have the tools to form deep, abiding, eternal friendships, and, because your needs are all met in Christ, you can make friends of the friendless and needy. Through the Covenant of Friendship, we can make friends. 

Perpetual Springtime!

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“We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).

Springtime is so inspiring.  New life is breaking the soil and everything grows so fast. The vibrancy of young life with its fresh bright colors assault us on every side and it is glorious.  Plants thrive with the Sun’s energy.  They soak up water, drink in nutrients and soon will bear fresh fruit.

The healthy Christian lives in perpetual springtime.  The ‘Son’ rises upon them daily. They are planted by the river of God’s delights and regularly drink in the vital, life-giving power of the Word of God.

A healthy plant is known by the sweet fruit that it produces.  What does the healthy Christian produce?  Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 1:3, mentions two evident fruits of the mature Christian life – growing faith and increasing love.  Faith is how we relate to God and love is how we relate to others. 

Faith is taking God’s Word as both true and wise and then acting on it in fruit-bearing hope. God speaks, we listen and heed his words.  The maturing Christian grows in his ability to apply the life-giving Word of God to every moment, every relationship, every issue of his life. And that growth is evident. Paul can see it and praise it.

But, how is it evident? Increasing love for one another reveals it. Knowing God and applying His Word makes us great lovers of all mankind.  At least it should.  Here, Paul talks about the increasing love that Christians have for one another. Because we know God, we also know ourselves. The fall, and sin’s deception, are not merely abstract theological concepts, but a daily experienced reality. A sad reality that God is healing in us through grace. Because of this healing we can be brutally honest with ourselves, warts and all, and patiently gracious towards our fellow strugglers. If we learn God’s love through the gospel, it is easy (easier?) to patiently love others.

Just as the Hospital is the place where Doctors practice medicine, the church fellowship is where we practice love. This mutual love is the low-hanging fruit in the congregation that all produce and we all enjoy.  God’s grace working in us nurtures the faith and love that produce hope of new life. Springtime is so encouraging.

Delivered from the Paralyzing Fear of Death

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Hebrews 2:14-15  Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Jesus was made like his brothers in all things, except sin. Messiah, our elder brother, fully identifies with His children so that He might conquer the devil, overcome our fear of death and restore us to true life. He has succeeded. The obedience and suffering of Christ is our salvation.

The accuser is silenced, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33), death is befriended, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), and life is freely given, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

What is this “lifelong slavery” that the fear of death subjects us to? Satan forms our sin into a stick to mercilessly flay our consciences. We are guilty and we know it. Our life is forfeit due to our transgressions. Satan, our accuser, has a legitimate case and we know it. That cripples our walk through life. We live in the fear of a death that we so richly deserve.

Jesus has taken the stick out of the devil’s hands. Our sin is paid for. The accusations are answered in full. Life can now be lived without the ball and chain of guilt and shame.

Death is now a friend. How is that again? We are now delivered from the guilt and shame of sin but not from sin itself. Sin, our disobedience to the law of God, is a life sapper. Sin brings death; always. While we are still subject to sin and temptation, fullness of life is just out of reach. Death changes that. Death is a promotion. When we die, sin dies and we are beyond the reach of temptation. Death ushers us into life; real life; eternal life.

Actually, Jesus ushers us into life and he does so the moment we first believe. As his children we are no longer walking zombies living in the fear of death. We have life now. Life will become fuller, richer, in glory; but we walk in newness of life today. “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

Yet, even Christians continue to be afraid of what comes next. Contributing to our fear of death is the unknown. Will I still be me? Does our conscious self continue after death? Yes. “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Will we recognize and relate to other saints? Yes. “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). “And He (Jesus) was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him (Matthew 17:2-4). What will we be doing there? Working, resting, hearing, praising, reigning in the presence of Christ – seeing him as he is.

What will we be waiting for? The completion of salvation, the full restoration of life. We shall be body and soul on the new heavens and the new earth in the presence of God and the absence of sin forever.

Death need not be feared while we walk in newness of life. Death is conquered, life is freely given. We have passed from darkness into light, from death into life. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14). “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

So, we have “Death in Adam, life in Christ” (Romans 5:12). “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him” (Colossians 2:14-15).

I have quoted the Scriptures profusely. Nearly half of this article is the Word of God. Why? First, because I am a divine plagiarist. I have no new wisdom or experience that did not come to me by the Word of God. Second, only God can answer the questions of sin and death. And he does answer them. Let us rest in them and rejoice. And live, now, the life of the world to come.

The Gentle Shepherd

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“Those who live by God’s forgiveness must imitate it; one whose only hope is that God will not hold his faults against him forfeits his right to hold others’ faults against them.” – J.I. Packer

I need God’s grace.  I am still weak, misguided, headstrong and unbelieving.  I need His wisdom, patience, and mercy applied to me daily.  I have always conceived of the pastoral ministry as one hungry beggar showing other hungry beggars where to find bread.  I depend on the free grace that I preach to you. Thomas Manton wrote, “there is none so tender to others as they which have received mercy themselves; that know how gently God hath dealt with them.” Grace must be needed, received, and enjoyed, before it can be effectively proclaimed.

I think this is one reason why men are called to preach and not angels.  The faithful angels do not need the same grace that I do.  One of the qualifications for preaching Christ is being humbled and exalted by that sweet grace of the gospel. We must taste that sustaining and transforming grace before we can joyfully and powerfully proclaim it to others. I can at times grow weary at the weakness and ignorance of God’s sheep.  Until I remember my own.  Depression grows when I see the hard-heartedness of God’s children; until I remember my own.  You get the picture.  We all need the same thing; the humility to receive and remain dependent on the sure grace of God.

We must shepherd others as Christ has shepherded us. Paul speaks of his pastoral ministry in this way, “but we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7).  Early on in my ministry I summarized this conviction in a way that I would remember. “Be as patient, gracious, and gentle with others as Christ was with you.” That thought has served me well as I walk among the weak, the wounded, and the weary. I am the hungry beggar that has found the bread!  Join me and let us celebrate the grace of God together!  Pray that we would be a gentle, gracious presence in the midst of God’s flock at Westminster.

The Longing Finally Fulfilled

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The Longing Finally Fulfilled

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11–13, ESV)

Out of the abundance of His own joy, beauty, and glory God has created all things. His creatures/creation all reflect, and in some sense, participate, in His glory. God has hidden himself in all the joy and beauty that He has made.  We can see Him, sense and experience Him in all that is fair.  

Mankind was made in the image of God as the crowning achievement of all that He had made. God created us with sensors to know Him and to recognize and enjoy all the expressions of his glory, even those glimpses found in the created order.  He has placed eternity in our hearts!  We long for God as we see the various manifestations of his glory all around us.

Yet, we are fallen creatures, partially blinded, and were unceremoniously escorted out of the Garden of God’s delights.  Now, we cannot find out what God has done.  We long for Him, for beauty, for glory; we can taste it and even glimpse it from a distance but it never fully satisfies.  We long for home but we do not know the way. We have lost the map.

CS Lewis calls this longing, Sehnsucht. This German word roughly modified means “the sense of deep, inconsolable longing, yearning, the feeling of intensely missing something when we don’t even know what it is” (Jennifer Neyhart).  From Till we Have Faces, “it almost hurt me … like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home … to find the place where all the beauty came from – my country, the place where I ought to have been born. The longing for home.”

We all have this longing for home, for joy, for satisfaction, for fulfillment.  We try to slake this hunger with other created things; fame, wealth, physical pleasure, etc. but they never satisfy.

CS Lewis in speaking of meaning and joy of his short marriage wrote, “Are no all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who had some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year after year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it – tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear.  But if it should really become manifest- if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself – you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say “Here at last is the thing I was made for.””

Later, speaking of this longing for home, Lewis wrote, “About death I go through different moods, but the times when I can desire it are never, I think, those when this world seems harshest. On the contrary, it is just when there seems to be most of Heaven already here that I come nearest to longing for a patria. It is the bright frontispiece which whets one to read the story itself. All joy (as distinct from mere pleasure, still more amusement) emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.”

Only God himself, his essential glory, can satisfy this longing. The glory that God has placed in the created order are hints, dim reflections, or better, foretastes of the satisfaction that we can only find in God. “Our hearts are restless, until they can rest in you.” (Augustine)

So, the preacher concludes, it is good for us to enjoy the foretastes, the hints of that glory, but not to rest in them short of the God who gave them. “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.” 

So, enjoy the gifts of God that he has placed in the created order but follow the gifts to the great Giver, and find your rest in Him.  “The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us is we trust to them; it was not in them, in only came through them, and what came through them was longing… For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.” CS Lewis. “One day, soon, we will be home. “What are hearts seek and hunger after is the overwhelming joy of homecoming and reunion with a Beloved.” (Terry Lindval)

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world” (CS Lewis).  Death is not the end. It is The End! The goal, the purpose, the place where our longing hearts will be satisfied.  It is life, finally. It is home.The

Holding the Other End of the Rope

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Holding the Other End of the Rope

‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.’ ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ ‘What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.’ This is the type of encouragement that many give to those enduring a painful providence. There is a shred of truth in such counsel but there isn’t much real comfort.

Our painful experiences in this fallen world make us feel like we are all alone in the bottom of a deep dark well. It is damp and cold with little light and no apparent way out. We may be able to see a few bright stars from the bottom of the well but we cannot seem to get to the light. Then, we hear someone at the top of well. We shout, ‘Help me, I am stuck at the bottom of this well and I can’t get out!” The welcome sound of another voice responds, “How can I help?” “Throw me a rope.” “Ok, sure, I got one in the truck. Just a minute.”

He returns and throws you a rope. You begin bitterly to complain. “Why did you throw the rope down?’ ‘That is what you asked for. What’s the matter?’ “Well, you could have held the other end of the rope!!”

Platitudes throw the whole rope down the well; true comfort holds the other end of the rope. To come alongside one who walks in darkness may mean simply sitting with them in silence, or praying for them, or sending them a card or a meal. Just being there is often a comfort. It may mean pointing them to God by being the presence of God in the darkness. It may mean showing the compassion and love of God in countless practical ways.

My family and I are at the bottom of the well with hundreds of ropes surrounding us. We are truly overwhelmed by the love and compassion of the Westminster Family and the wider church as well. So many have gone the extra mile to serve and encourage us. To experience the heartfelt love of God from so many and in so many practical ways is true comfort. I thank God that you are holding the other end of the rope for my family.

It almost makes being at the bottom of the well a thing to welcome with open arms. Almost.

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